The Geekification of YouTube

It was bound to happen.  Digital media has become a constant in geek and genre entertainment.  Look at any social social interaction on the web, like Facebook and Google+, and you'll find a abundance of fantasy, horror, sci-fi groups and clubs that offer all sorts of material to allow ourselves to fall into the wonders of Geek Culture.

The "post it yourself" social media web page, YouTube is no different.  Since it's inception, fan boys and girls have been flooding the page with oodles of content.  From Fan-films to video blogging to documentary shorts on comic conventions, you can find yourself lost for day's going through an endless treasure trove of cool as heck content.

YouTube has yet to be completely corporatized or censored by doo-gooding parental groups of purificationists.  YouTube realizes that geeks are made up of mostly mature adults where our minds won't melt if there's a bit of mature language used.  So now is the time to jump in and have a looksie if you haven't yet.

Let me help you get started.  I've picked out of few of my favorite YouTube content providers (or YouTube Channels as they're referred to).  Now, before you start viewing, there's something you need to keep in mind.  As I just mentioned, these channels are geared for adults, so if you have little ears and eyes close by......... for crissakes, put them back in the shoebox in the crawlspace!!!  But, seriously folks.  These channels are for adults.

That being said, here we go.  I'll give you a link to the channel, a review of it and then a little sampler plate of a couple of video's they provide.


The Nerdist Channel

Founded by stand up comedian / actor, Chris Hardwick, the Nerdist YouTube channel is the perfect compliment to his already established network of Podcasts, which I blogged about quite a while ago.  One of the great things about anything Nerdist related is that it doesn't restrict itself to just the genres of nerdom.  Sure there's a good dose of a love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but it also aims itself at pop culture in general.  Some of my favorite shows are posted below.

How much cooler is bowling with the cast and creator of The Walking Dead?  Not very frackin' much!

If you love the fan based, movie review website, Ain't-It-Cool-News, here's it's founder's own web show.  God this kid loves movies.

Here's a wonderful round table discussion of all things geeky with a special guest star every week. 

There's also shows with Weird Al Yankovic and one that specializes in Cos-Play at conventions.  Apparently they are also planning a Fangoria show with Anthrax's Scott Ian  Definitely a channel to keep you eyes on.

Next up is a channel that I tripped upon when I was looking for reviews on the video game, Red Dead Redemption.

3KB

This import from Canada features three fans of video games and movies who review them on an ongoing basis.  I enjoy their humor and camaraderie and their creativity to put something like this together.

My introduction to 3KB.

Their review of the best movie this summer so far.

Here's one where they have the main voice actor from the video game actually play the game with them.  Cool concept.

Geek and Sundry

Geek icon, Felicia Day, has been a pioneer in online geek content with her on-line show The Guild for some time now.  At YouTube she has her own channel where many a wondrous, geekesque related show can be viewed.

A show where they feature guest stars playing famous, geeky table top games hosted by Wil Wheaton? YES, PLEASE!  This episode features one of the greatest TV scriptwriters of our time!  Jane Espenson.

Miss Day's own personal video blog.  Is it kinda lame for me to post the episode where she poses in cute Steampunk outfits?  Methinks not!

A YouTube, online Fantasy book club where there are book reviews and interviews with the authors themselves.  If I were more of a literary genre geek, I'd be all over it like a bad rash.

I may let you know of a few more in another post coming up.  Right now I have to partake in a Memorial Day cookout.  So until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

GEEKS, NERDS AND FAN BOYS, ASSEMBLE!

I've had a nice little hiatus from posting here, but my creative juices are screaming for an outlet lately so I'm finally driven to post something.

The main subject that has scooped me up and out of my general imaginative and creative malaise recently was the viewing of the insanely anticipated, Joss Whedon helmed super-hero movie, Marvel's The Avengers.

This movie had every indication of not sucking.  A wonderfully mixed cocktail that includes Mr. Whedon, the man who created and wrote some of the greatest genre TV (Buffy, Firefly and Dollhouse, to name a few) as not only the director, but also the writer.  Then put a half of glass of one of the most famous super teams to ever grace the pages of comic books.  Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye under the comand of Nick Fury.  Then add one shot of great actors reprising their rolls from the previous Marvel, super hero films that had already made a big impact within the geek community.  Mix and stir and put a pickle in it and you have a cocktail full of geek magic.

The hype for this movie was so insane that it put the project on pedestal of such a great hight that any sort of failure would not be an option.  This had me a bit worried.

As we all anticipated the coming of The Avengers, an example that I was given at one time about another film project that had all the makings of a great picture, kept running through my mind.

Here was the original pitch on that other "can't miss" movie....

• From the mind of author Michael Crichton
• From the people that brought you, "Raiders of the Lost Arc", "Back to the Future", "Poltergeist", The Color Purple", "Cape Fear" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
• Special Effects by Stan Winston.
• A summer blockbuster, action adventure!
• Starring Man-God, BRUCE CAMPBELL!

And that film turned out to be..... CONGO

This proves the point that you may have all the wonderful pieces in place, but you still have to know how to move them.

So with a little trepidation, I took Friday afternoon off and went to see "Marvel's The Avengers".  After one initial viewing I can most certainly say that Mr. Whedon definitely knows how to move his pieces!

Back in my $30 to $90 dollar a week comic book addiction days, I was a DC Comics kind of guy  (despite the fact that their new logo kind of blows).  I've always leaned more toward the darker side of comic stories.  Batman and DC's Vertigo Comics imprint were always more compelling than, what I saw as, the Disneyesque, soap opera driven Marvel universe.  That's not to say I had any dislike for the Marvel super heros.  I've always appreciated Stan Lee and what his Marvel Comics brought to geekdom.

So every time a new Marvel super hero movie comes out, I find myself excited, but not to the point of fan boy craziness.  But, after seeing this movie, I probably should have been fan boy crazy after all.  I'm not sure if it was because I controlled my hopes and dreams before I saw it, but this movie kicked my ass eight ways to Sunday!  I loved the hell out of this flick!

There is one main reason, one person, who is responsible for this.  Joss F*#KING Whedon!

Sure, you can have your all star cast and your uber-awesome 3D effects and great action intense set pieces, but it won't mean a frackin' thing unless you have a great visionary guiding the story and characters.

This movie would have been just another big budget summer blockbuster that could have come out and had its two weeks at the top and then disappeared only to find limited success on DVD and Blu-Ray like many, many other summer blockbusters (let's see how "Battleship" does).  But Avengers has something that other blockbusters don't.  It has heart.

Let's face it.  The story-line itself is pretty basic and standard Avengers comic book fare.  Thor's God-Like evil brother, Loki, decides to seek revenge on Thor by using a intergalactic portal opening weapon and employs an alien army to try and destroy the earth.  Nick Fury and his secret service organization called S.H.E.I.L.D. bring the super heros together to help save the earth.  Not anything comic book geeks aren't used to in the Marvel universe.  Been there, done that, got the shirt several times.

But, somehow it is made fresh and new.

The first and foremost thing I love about this movie is the characterization, something Mr. Whedon has a crazy gift for, as anyone would know if they've ever watched the second greatest TV show ever, Firefly (Deadwood is the first, just sayin').  He has a love for the characters in his projects and it shows in his passion for the material.

Whedon magically takes each and every super hero and gives them their own place and story and time on screen that doesn't take away from any one of the team at all.  He brings in the feel from each of the previous super hero movies without ostracizing any of the characters.  There are a couple of characters I would have liked to have seen a little more of, but it doesn't deter from the sotry at all.  I'll get to those characters later.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) feels just like the Iron Man from the previous Iron Man films.  The same can be said for both Thor and Captain America.  They're the same characters we loved form their own films without being compromised or changed to fit the team up.

And the new Hulk / David Banner actor, Mark Ruffalo, fits in wonderfully as the soft spoken, somewhat troubled yet still caring scientist who turns into everyones favorite big, green raging machine.  Bixby would be proud.

It's the writing for each of the characters, including Banner's that makes this film stand out from the other Marvel super hero films.

It's wonderful watching how these characters interact and react to each other.  The dialog between them is something Marvel fans will absolutely love and adore.  Sure, there are the huge fights against each other that are staples of the comics that are pretty grandiose and visually impacting.  But, it's the quieter moments with each other that give the film heart.  The viewer gets to feel out the newly assembled super team as much as they feel each other out also.  That's the magic of Whedon.

There's also a fair amount of humor in the film that is nicely peppered throughout that makes our heros a little more human.  There's a scene between Hulk and Loki toward the end that is pure awesomeness.  HULK SMASH, indeed.

As for the action sequences and visual effects, of coarse they're going to bring it full throttle!  There's tons of action, explosions and crazy ass damage all over the place.  A geek's visual smorgasbord.

During my viewing of the film, I enjoyed every minute of it.  After having time to think about it, I could have had a little more emphasis on the characters of Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury.

Though Hawkeye played a pivotal roll in the film, he was somewhat still in the background.  If I were an uber-comic nerd I would have had more of an issue with his costume.  Having a black leather suit with purple highlights and no mask might seem hot and trendy for Hollywood, but THIS....

...is what Hawkeye looks like.  Why is Hollywood so afraid to put their super heros in masks?  Is Captain America the only one who gets mask time?

Black Widow certainly had a lot of cool scenes.  But, for some reason, I felt there was something missing from the character.  She needed more than to look hot in skin tight outfits.  And Nick Fury was originally looked upon as a bad-ass character who was going to whoopass and take names later.  Partially because the role was played by Samuel L. Jackson.  But, his character ends up doing a little ass kicking and more commanding and giving orders from the bridge of his secret air ship while the heros do the muscle work.

Admittedly those were the typical paltry, geek gripes that in no way, shape or form deter from the awesomeness of this movie!

In closing I'll raise a frosty Schlitz Tall Boy in the air and salute one Joss Whedon, for taking this beloved comic and its characters and giving them a wonderful send up that I hope many Whedon directed and written sequels will will come from!

ALL HAIL JOSS WEHDON, MAN-GOD OF THE AGES!

Zangz.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(Marvel_Comics)